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Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath addresses the media, while Mayor Frank Jackson listens, during a news conference called to reveal the findings of an internal review of the now infamous Nov. 29 police chase. The two suspects leading the chase were killed in a hail of gunfire at its conclusion.
(Scott Shaw, The Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- More than a third of all Cleveland police patrol officers on duty the night of Nov. 29 could be reprimanded, suspended or even fired for ignoring supervisors' orders or abandoning their respective districts to join the deadly pursuit of two suspects, at speeds reaching 125 mph, city officials said Wednesday.

Six police supervisors also are accused of failing to keep the chase under control, Police Chief Michael McGrath said during a news conference called to reveal the results of an internal review of the now infamous pursuit.

But McGrath said the numerous violations of department policies confirmed by the months-long review does not alter his opinion that officers are adequately trained, an assertion that drew criticism from Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine.

He stuck by that assessment Wednesday and said McGrath is wrong to ignore a lack of training among his officers.

"When you have two percent of officers committing violations, you have an officer problem," DeWine said. "When you have 36 percent of officers committing violations, you have a departmental problem."

The city's review, conducted by a special panel of police and city administrators, was limited to examining whether officers obeyed policies and orders during the chase that spanned 19 miles and ended in an East Cleveland parking lot with a barrage of bullets.

Suspects Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams were killed. Both were unarmed at the time of the shooting.

The review committee has turned over its findings to the department's Integrity Control Section, which will send reports on individual officers to McGrath to determine disciplinary action in the coming weeks. Of the 276 officers on duty that night, 100 face charges that they violated some part of the department's pursuit policy. Sixty-nine officers and five supervisors could face penalties for unjustifiably driving at high speeds, endangering civilians and themselves.

Mayor Frank Jackson during the news conference reiterated his pledge that the officers involved will have his full support if the investigation confirms that there actions were "within the box" -- in accordance with city policies.

"Those officers who are outside the box, that is on them," Jackson said. "And we will deal with that accordingly. We have been transparent and fair in our review. We had no preconceived notions as to anything. We just gathered all the facts and evidence and laid our policies and procedures on top of that to see who was within and who was without."

The chase began downtown after officers perceived that someone had fired a gun from Russell's vehicle. During the pursuit, officers believed the gunfire had continued and, at one point, they reported that the car had rammed a police cruiser.

The chase dead-ended in the parking lot of Heritage Middle School in East Cleveland, and 13 Cleveland officers fired 137 bullets at the suspects.

However, when the bodies were removed from the car, police found no gun or shell casings inside.

During the news conference, Cleveland Police Commander James Chura presented a chronology of radio transmissions, maps plotting the positions of the police vehicles involved and video footage from surveillance cameras throughout the city. (See Chura's presentation in the document viewer below.)

Many of the details -- including the course of the chase, the number of vehicles in pursuit and the frenzied radio traffic suggesting that one of the suspects was armed -- had been reported earlier by media.

But one map in the presentation captured, in a way never before seen, the growing procession of speeding police cars chasing Russell's 1979 Chevrolet Malibu. The pack of cruisers zigzagged through the city on Russell's heels for nearly a half hour, leaving wide swaths of the city unprotected, seemingly with no police presence at all.

At one point, as the line of cars sped down West 14th Street, the 2nd District supervisor who should have been in command, cut off the path, parked near Lincoln Park and went silenton radio for several minutes, before meandering back toward the pursuit, Chura pointed out.

And images and information collected from the only car in the chase equipped with a dashboard camera showed that car racing down thoroughfares at nearly 70 mph without lights or sirens, past pedestrians. Surveillance video showed other drivers on the road at one intersection pulling over and turning on their hazard lights, while the speeding motorcade of police took more than five minutes to pass through.

More than once, police district supervisors ordered their charges to break off from the chase. Some officers would comply, only to later rejoin the effort or follow it along a parallel road -- another violation of the chase policy, Chura said.

Patrick D'Angelo, the attorney for the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association, said in an interview Wednesday that the city is trying to deflect blame for poor leadership in the department, a deteriorating communication system and a lack of officer training on pursuit policies.

"It's a convenient answer to blame police officers and supervisors but it doesn't fix the problem," he said, adding that in most cases, including one last week, the punishment for joining a chase without permission has been a written warning.

The evidence collected by the state during the criminal probe is now in the hands of Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty, who is expected to present the case to a grand jury for possible criminal charges against the 13 officers who fired their weapons. McGinty said Wednesday that officers and supervisors could also face charges stemming from the pursuit, such as dereliction of duty.

The city's administrative review, so far, has not addressed the use of deadly force because that issue is at the heart of the open criminal case.

A number of local pastors, community leaders and activists from Cleveland's black community also attended the news conference Wednesday.

Charles See, director of community re-entry programs for Lutheran Metropolitan Ministries, said he came to watch as a citizen and believed the review was thorough and unbiased, as Jackson assured it would be.

"He said he would hold people accountable and let the chips fall where they may," See said. "It appears that they have done that."

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